(23-04-2012 06:52 PM)LadyJane Wrote: ....Elemts, what state is that church that has the contemporary and modern service you were talking about? I'm getting excited! Won't be for awhile though, hoping for in about 12-18 months.

It's in Illinois (sorry, won't be too specific..., if I even mentioned the full name, it gives my town, and uh, I don't get that specific unless I really know the people--no offense ) but I will say that if you look around Chicago/St Louis, Champaign/Urbana, you could probably find a televised one; however, you could easily find a radio broadcast one on Sundays! And the contemporary service (that's what at least some/most times involves the "wear anything")? I think that's catching on in many churches (or so I heard...) for one reason: children and young adults didn't want to get dressed up to hear a boring service, so they make it exciting, hip, rock music, and "wear anything". It's an advertising ploy! But yeah, I've seen a few "Church of Christs" do it. Of course if you know you'll be in an area, you could call/write and ask--some churches are generally very interested in people showing up (at least Christian... there's conditions, but you know)

Oh, and a note about the ghost hunting.... you might not want to say you smell sulfur.... I noticed a strong rotten egg smell and they looked at me like "shut up now! you're summoning the demons!" and when I asked my friend he said that some people believe only two people can smell it: psychics and demons, and the group doesn't believe in psychics. So I guess that made me the "Demon man/boy" and probably why I wasn't invited to any others. Actually that was the only thing I couldn't explain (because they refused to let me! I was so annoyed, although I was sniffing everything [including my friends] to see where it could've come from!).

(23-04-2012 04:09 PM)LadyJane Wrote: My friends and I want to do an American bible belt tour. We are trying to plan a rough idea of the distance and the places we want to go to. It'll be a road trip, we are hoping around a couple of weeks long. We aren't going just for the bible culture, we want an all around deep south culture experience, but our main theme is the religious aspect. I realize the Creation museum is further (I think by Cincinnati?) so we might start there, rent a car and then end up somewhere else to fly out of. We think, though I don't even know if outsiders are welcome, we want to experience the Westboro Baptist Church or maybe some other televised church or something. Maybe we want to even see snake handling, but not sure. We also want to hit up some random smaller southern churches, maybe in small towns or something. Ideally we'd like to top of the trip ending at and atheist convention or something, but that might be wishful thinking, lol.

My one friend has studied cults and religion and the other friend is a professional magician. I'm just super curious to see first hand if things are true that I hear about. We want to go under the radar so to speak, we just strictly want to experience it first hand but like a fly on the wall, if that makes sense.

Anyways. Has anyone done this or can anyone who lives in any of this area give some pointers or suggestions? Maybe if you driven a similar route in the area you'd have an idea of how long we'd need to drive? Or maybe (most importantly, I am wondering) you know about a place that we should put on our route to check out that might be interesting?

I've figured out and completed major road trip expeditions before, so when we get closer to putting dates down I can crunch the actual miles vs time then, but I just was wondering a rough idea plus love hidden gems to sight see.

Thanks!

Just drive around randomly anywhere in the South. The key to success is acting like you're super Christian. Have some Bible verses memorized and be prepared to have your Jesus knowledge sharpened. If they find out you're faking it, the scene could get ugly.

(23-04-2012 04:09 PM)LadyJane Wrote: My friends and I want to do an American bible belt tour. We are trying to plan a rough idea of the distance and the places we want to go to. It'll be a road trip, we are hoping around a couple of weeks long. We aren't going just for the bible culture, we want an all around deep south culture experience, but our main theme is the religious aspect. I realize the Creation museum is further (I think by Cincinnati?) so we might start there, rent a car and then end up somewhere else to fly out of. We think, though I don't even know if outsiders are welcome, we want to experience the Westboro Baptist Church or maybe some other televised church or something. Maybe we want to even see snake handling, but not sure. We also want to hit up some random smaller southern churches, maybe in small towns or something. Ideally we'd like to top of the trip ending at and atheist convention or something, but that might be wishful thinking, lol.

My one friend has studied cults and religion and the other friend is a professional magician. I'm just super curious to see first hand if things are true that I hear about. We want to go under the radar so to speak, we just strictly want to experience it first hand but like a fly on the wall, if that makes sense.

Anyways. Has anyone done this or can anyone who lives in any of this area give some pointers or suggestions? Maybe if you driven a similar route in the area you'd have an idea of how long we'd need to drive? Or maybe (most importantly, I am wondering) you know about a place that we should put on our route to check out that might be interesting?

I've figured out and completed major road trip expeditions before, so when we get closer to putting dates down I can crunch the actual miles vs time then, but I just was wondering a rough idea plus love hidden gems to sight see.

Thanks!

Just drive around randomly anywhere in the South. The key to success is acting like you're super Christian. Have some Bible verses memorized and be prepared to have your Jesus knowledge sharpened. If they find out you're faking it, the scene could get ugly.

Do I have to claim to know lots if people engage us about it? Can't I just be someone who doesn't know much but is checking things out? Wouldn't they want that anyway? Do I have to already be like minded or can't I just say I am checking it out to see what it's about because I've heard about the strong Christian presence in the area? Cause we were planning on just playing a bit dumb to it all and hopefully sit back and watch. Maybe I can be super Christian but know nothing?

(23-04-2012 07:26 PM)germanyt Wrote:

(23-04-2012 06:52 PM)LadyJane Wrote: We'd be up for meeting any regular TTA members for a drink or coffee, too. Just not Egor (don't know where he's from, but just saying) he scares me. lol.

That's funny. He lives in New Orleans.

Awesome. Good thing there are a lot of other people that live there. Actually, wonder if his new religion will have an up and running church, temple or whatever he's gonna call it yet. Ha ha.

(23-04-2012 08:10 PM)Blood Wrote: Just drive around randomly anywhere in the South. The key to success is acting like you're super Christian. Have some Bible verses memorized and be prepared to have your Jesus knowledge sharpened. If they find out you're faking it, the scene could get ugly.

Do I have to claim to know lots if people engage us about it? Can't I just be someone who doesn't know much but is checking things out? Wouldn't they want that anyway? Do I have to already be like minded or can't I just say I am checking it out to see what it's about because I've heard about the strong Christian presence in the area? Cause we were planning on just playing a bit dumb to it all and hopefully sit back and watch. Maybe I can be super Christian but know nothing?

Most Christians in the so-called Bible Belt don't read the Bible or know very much about the religion themselves. But as a tourist and an outsider, you really don't have any reason to be there unless you are some kind of "born again" who can cite chapter and verse, and have come to America from an Atheist country to bond with the true Christians.

Mind you, it doesn't take long to read the entire New Testament -- about a week or so.

Yeah, we'd totally be up for some ghost tours and supernatural, voodoo stuff as well!

I expect to be an outsider everywhere we go. We are just on holidays and passing through town, looking for a service to attend while we stay briefly That's our story. Except I think we will stick out as more eccentric types maybe We get extra tourist point for always having the cameras . I imagine we'd have to keep them in tucked away at services though. I kind of expected West Borrow to be closed to others. Boo! Are there any large churches, like televised ones? Elemts, what state is that church that has the contemporary and modern service you were talking about? I'm getting excited! Won't be for awhile though, hoping for in about 12-18 months.

I'll report back, with pics, what we found and what our experience was like. Kim, maybe we'd make the next year reason rally! If it's annual? We'd be up for meeting any regular TTA members for a drink or coffee, too. Just not Egor (don't know where he's from, but just saying) he scares me. lol.

If you're doing that, check out Savannah, GA. One of the prettiest cities in the south and also considered to be the most haunted as well (not to mention, it's my hometown!)

"IN THRUST WE TRUST"

"We were conservative Jews and that meant we obeyed God's Commandments until His rules became a royal pain in the ass."